Navajo Tarahuamara Indian Outreach Pictures|Water Ministry News Page

Navajo-Zuni outreach to the Tarahumara - April 08'

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a group of Navajo and Zuni teenagers from New Mexico. They came down to begin a water project in a small village called Huisarochi, a little over an hour from Creel. Marcos and I had visited this village last year to look at their water source, measure the distance from the village and the altitude of the spring above the village. We found out maybe a month later that we would not be able to work in this village safely. There was a major drug operation near where the spring was located. Marijuana was being grown in that area. We were very disappointed and wondered what we could do. We prayed and even planned to go back and start the project in December or January of next year during the winter when there would be no activity there.

Just recently we got word that there was going to be logging to the south of this village. This was very good news because with the extra traffic through the village there would be no "money crop" this year giving us the opportunity we had prayed for.

The spring we are using to supply water is located 2 kilometers (around 1 mile) up a canyon northeast of the village and at a vertical height difference of 250 feet. This is an ideal situation, we only have to construct a small dam in front of the spring outlet to pool the water. Black plastic well pipe will then be ran from there down to a large plastic water tank which will serve the village. Gravity will the the only requirement to power this system and we have a surplus of that here!

The teenagers spent their time with us gathering sand from the riverbed below. They had to use buckets and wheel-barrows to carry the sand up the side of a large hill overlooking the village. A concrete pad will be poured to support the large 3500 liter water tank that will supply the village with water. The last day was spent digging out the spring and bringing more sand in preparation to build the dam.

That night the group had planned a Navajo dinner to share with the people from the village. Navajo - hamburger tacos were served to everyone. After the meal a cultural presentation was shared by two of the group. Traditional Navajo dress was shown as well as language and traditions. We finished off the outreach with a "first time" showing of the Jesus film. Some of the people there may possibly have heard of Jesus before, but had never seen a visual representation to reinforce any belief they might have. It was an evening for all to enjoy with five nations being represented there in that small village, (Tarahumara, Mexican, Navajo, Zuni, and Gringo) deep in the Sierra Madres Mountains.